I feel bad. I kinda totally abandoned this site. Well, not kinda. Just totally. I left it for 5 years. On it’s own. At the mercy of the dangers of the Internet at large. Talk about Idle. Well, someone wasn’t idle exactly. Hackers.

I visited the site for the first time in years, not sure what to expect and it looked like this:

I had let the registration lapse. Surprise, no one had snapped it up. So I re-registered it. Then I downloaded a new FTP client and FTP’d into the server. All the WordPress and content files, gone. In their place, a series of phishing folders and files. I hope no one was caught up. So annoying. I deleted all the files.

I checked in with my host (Dreamhost) yesterday to see what could be done about recovering the site. Nothing. The earliest backup they had was infected with these phishing pages. Again, annoying. So back to square one.

Second step, find the XML backup export. Not so easy. I couldn’t remember when I had done it or where I had put it. But after a few hours of searching through hard drives, I found it. Eureka!

Third step, import the XML file. Easy. All the posts are now published again. Whoo-hoo!

Fourth step, re-install the theme. Ok, found the theme files on my Mac. Zipped them up. Tried to install. And #fail. I guess the theme doesn’t work because it’s from an old version of WP. I have the images and the styles, but it’s not that simple to convert. So I’m gonna have to put that off for the time being. It can wait.

I’m just happy to have the site back online. No I can find my Banana Bread recipe. Yay!

UPDATE**No banana bread right now. The XML backup only went back to 2007 for some reason. So I’m missing all the posts from 2002-2007, which is huge amount of content. The search continues…

UPDATE PART DEUX**Found the Banana Bread post in a text file. Less than ideal as it can’t be imported, but I recreated the post. Banana Bread for everyone!

I had my baptism into what Dan calls “Climb Brutal“, one of the shorter routes to get from the El Cerrito to Tilden Park.

Climb Brutal kicks off with a pleasantly winding route through the Sunset View Cemetery, which I didn’t even know existed.

Once you pass the eastern gate of the cemetery, you’re on to Sunset Drive, a fairly mild incline at 11.2%, which will take you to Arlington.
http://app.strava.com/rides/370283#5914280

On Arlington, you have make a u-turn to get to the heart of Climb Brutal, Wellesley Drive, which kicks up to a gut-wrenching 17% grade for .2 miles, which doesn’t seem that long, but go climb it and it will seem like forever. I couldn’t make it and had to stop half-way.

After Wellesley, there’s a short chance to recover on Cambridge, but when you start climbing again after a left on Beloit and even though the grade is shy of 9%, I didn’t have anything left in the tank and I crawled up to Grizzly Peak.

The regular Saturday ride was rained out, but several people thought we should re-schedule the ride for today. I wanted to get some miles in and it looked it was going to be the only dry day of the weekend, so I went out to the lake. I knew it was going to be cold, but I didn’t really realize how cold. I was completely underdressed. I was wearing shorts, only two layers on top and, for some inexplicable reason, I left my full finger gloves in the car. Maybe it was sunny when I got ready to mount the bike and head for the start.

At the lake were about 8 people, mostly Humane riders, all bundled up against the cold and giving me a hard time for being so poorly prepared. I was fine when the sun was out, but when it drifted behind the clouds, I was shivering.

We went up Wildwood and Leimert. The strain of the climb kept me nice and toasty, But Butters Canyon was a different story. It was cold, dark and wet in there. By the time I arrived at Skyline, I was ready to head home. So I bailed on my fellow riders and headed down Joaquin Miller and Trestle Glen to return to the lake.

I was bummed that I only got about 12 miles in, but I quickly forgot about that when I got into a nice, warm shower. Next time, I’m going to bundle up and be prepared.

Since this route makes a counter-clockwise circuit around the north part of the East Bay, I decided I’d ride to the lake and then bail out back to Richmond around San Pablo Dam Rd./Key Route. It was a beautiful morning, slight chill in the air, lots of birds around.

Tons of people already walking their dogs at Point Isabel at 8:30. I crossed over the Berkeley I-80 Bridge and then I made a fateful decision.

Instead of continuing straight on surface streets or winding through Aquatic Park, I decided to check out the road between the park and the freeway. I had never done it before. I was making good time this morning, so what the hell?

I didn’t get 100 yards down the gravel strewn path when I flatted. It was my flat in ages. I know I had a few last year, but this was first with the black and white Vittoria tires, so I know it’s been a long, long time.

This ride started off a little strange. I was late. Sort of. I parked near the lake and left my car at around 9:24. I rode like a maniac around the lake and down the Embarcadero trying to catch up, but I wasn’t catching up to anyone. I should have caught up to the Light and Humane riders already. I realized that the group must have been coming around on Bellevue as I past the Children’s Fairyland parking lot. Thinking I was late, I skipped Bellevue and just went straight on Grand, missing the pack entirely. Just about the time I realized my mistake and stopped under that little pedestrian bridge just before after the fish packers, up ride the Advanced group.
I continued with them over to Alameda and about halfway down Doolittle, but the pace was too much for me. I would suffer later for the effort of trying to keep up at 22-25 mph on the flats. Big mistake.
After the typical break at the gas station in San Leandro, I climbed Fairmont easier and quicker than I had on Lake Chabot two weeks earlier, which is to be expected. There was no wind on the descent and it was really quick. I topped 43 mph on the way to Castro Valley.